Zooming Techniques

Synonyms

Multiscale interface; Scaling; Zoomable user interface (ZUI)

Definition

Zooming facilitates data presentation on limited screen real-estate by allowing the users to alter the scale of the viewport such that it shows a decreasing fraction of the information space with an increasing magnification. Hence the system may first present a global overview of the information space for the benefit of orientation, and in a second step, the users can then dynamically re-allocate the screen space based on the information objects they are interested in. A navigation technique commonly used in conjunction with zooming is panning: a movement of the viewport over the information space at a constant scale.

Historical Background

The first application to use zooming as a fundamental interface approach was the Spatial Data Management System (SDMS) [
1] in 1978 (see Fig.
1). The SDMS system relied heavily on custom hardware, including an octophonic sound system and an instrumented chair equipped...